The introduction of the Internet Web browser and the development of wireless computer networks offered the promise of wireless e-commerce and Internet access. Conventionally, there are five principal methods for delivering wireless Internet solutions.
The first solution is to simply remove the need for cables in a computer network by using wireless transceivers to provide the communications link between computers. The second solution is to connect a computing device to a cellular phone and use the phone to connect to a wireless network. The third solution is to display reduced Internet content on a cellular phone-using Short Messaging Services (SMS) or Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The fourth solution is to synchronize wireless data transfers between mobile devices (such as handheld or palm-sized computers) and stationary desktop computers. Lastly, cellular phone capabilities are being built into small handheld computing devices capable of displaying Internet content.
However, each of these solutions required a compromise that limits its ability to truly deliver mobile electronic commerce.
One method of dropping “wired” connections is to use a central transceiver capable of establishing and maintaining a radio frequency link between a computing device (including personal computers or PC's, personal digital assistants (PDA's), laptop, and handheld computers) and a central transceiver. The central tranceiver provides the remote device with wireless access to network resources using a wireless protocol such as 8002.11b, Bluetooth, or HomeRF which generally operate at unregulated frequencies such as 2.4 GHz. The computing device must have a wireless modem and transceiver to communicate with the wireless network and operate at the same frequency using the same wireless protocol. Software must be installed on both the central transceiver and the wireless device to manage transactional massages between these wireless davices.
A variation of this model is embodied in the latest format for portable computing devices, the tablet computer. A tablet computer resembles a notebook sized touch-sensitive screen that is equipped for Wi-Fi (a synonym for the IEEE's 802.11b protocol) or Bluetooth connectivity. A tablet computer would wirelessly connect to a wireless LAN (as described above) to provide network and Internet connectivity to the tablet device. The input mechanism is principally via the touch-sensitive screen which, due to it being larger in size than displays on PDA and handheld devices, makes the user interface easier to use than on hand-sized devices.
Another variation takes the form of TV set-top boxes which can also be configured with wireless adapter cards to allow users to wirelessly surf the World Wide Web using their TV and remote control. The significant difference here is the use of a television as the display mechanism. Otherwise, the use of the set-top box mimics the functionality of the wireless transceivers described earlier in providing the network connectivity.
While each of the above solutions is somewhat portable, in that cables are not required in order to deliver content to the display devices, they are all limited by the transmission range of the wireless LAN that provides the network connection. This means that the computing devices are dependent upon the wireless LAN and cannot offer the same levels of service without it. This is an “in-office” or “in-home” solution only. Beyond this freedom from cables, each of the devices using the wireless network functions as if it were wired directly to the network.
The second model in current use is to connect a PDA or handheld computing device with a cellular phone to offer a more mobile solution. In this embodiment, virtually any computing device that can be coupled with a cellular phone can offer Internet content provided that the cellular phone or computing device has a modem available to it and the necessary software to support content display (i.e. a browser) is available. Such a configuration can be wired, for example, the handheld device may be cabled to the phone via a data cable using a RS232 connection, but is otherwise completely portable. Alternatively, the handheld device may use a wireless connection, such as Bluetooth or another wireless protocol, to connect to the cellular phone. The wireless connection can also be established using infrared transceivers between the cellular phone and the PDA device. However, the use of infrared requires that both devices be aligned to have their infrared transceivers facing each other in order to communicate.
The difficulty with this approach is that the user must carry multiple devices around in order to have wireless access to Internet content. In the case of infrared communications, the user must ensure line-of-sight alignment of such devices for this to work. A further problem is that most Internet content to be displayed was not designed for the limited screen capabilities of PDAs or handheld devices and is therefore not easily viewed in this configuration. Such devices also have limited input capabilities due to their small size. The sum of these limitations may be inconvenient for mobile users.
In response to the limitations of handheld computing devices and mobile phones, and in an effort to provide Internet content to users regardless of location, a handheld markup language was defined that is known today as Wireless Markup Language (WML) and is supported by a specialized protocol called Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). WAP is therefore not a device, but a protocol. In fact, it was developed with the specific intent of offering Internet content over cellular phones. Indeed, the development of WAP resolved many of the problems associated with wireless communications such as signal latency, connection dropping, and device typing (to address each device's limits with respect to screen size, power management, and input characteristics). However, the basic assumptions of WAP are that only text and rudimentary bitmap images are to be supported by WAP-enabled devices. The limitations of WAP may be frustrating for users used to viewing Internet content on their desktop.
A competing standard to WAP has emerged in Japan in the form of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode browser, which displays standard Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) Internet content. i-Mode is supported by NTT's network, which does most ofthe work inpreparing Internet content for display on the limited screen of the user's phone. Howwever, i-mode is also constrained by the mobile device's screen size.
Another form of Internet content available to mobile phones is represented by the short Messaging Service (SMS). This variant allows short text messages, 250 characters or less, to be sent to mobile phones by the user entering a text message on their phone, dialing a phone number of the intended recipient, and having the massage forwarded to a network server to route the message to the recipient. The server software interprets the call as SMS and stores the message on the server. The server then calls the recipient and posts the message on their phone's display screen. If the recipient is presently unavailable, the message will remain on the server and the recipient will be notified of the message when their phone is turned on or their line is made available for calls.
Because of the limited input capabilities of most handheld devices, PDA manufacturers have long recognized the need to exchange data from handheld devices to other devices more capable of viewing and manipulating such data (such as PCs and laptop computers). These manufacturers have therefore developed data synchronizing software and hardware to support the transfer of information from handheld devices to computers (and other handhelds)—and vice versa. In fact, a consortium established in 1999 to standardize such data synchronization has produced a new markup language called SyncML. This standard is intended to alleviate the incompatibilities between synchronization solutions offered by independent vendors.
Regardless of the method of synchronization used, the principle remains the same. Data must be stored as a file or record, on either of the handheld device or PC, and software needs to check the state of the data to determine if changes or additions to the file or record have occurred since the last synchronization. If the data is different between the two devices, then the data will be copied to the device (handheld or PC) that has the oldest copy or is missing a copy. Deleted files can similarly be handled by removing the file or record from both devices based on a deletion flag associated with the data.
Such synchronizations are necessary to avoid loss of data and to permit the accessibility to such data by the portable device. However, manipulation of such data via the handheld device can be onerous due to the small screen size and limited input characteristics of such devices. Synchronization is a reflection of the weakness of handheld computing devices to be fully functional in their own right. Users are still responsible for initiating and configuring the characteristics of such synchronization. So mistakes will be made and data, potentially, lost. It also relegates handheld devices to be more of a “viewer” than an actual computing device. Display capability, because the viewing image is usually small and lacking in colour or image depth (low pixel count), is not the handheld's greatest strength.
There has been a significant move towards converging telephony with handheld computers. This solution provides for the software utilities embedded in most PDAs, such as calenders, phone directories, note editors, and game features to be combined with cellular phone capabilities. Both cellular phone and PDA manufacturers have approached the solution by leveraging the strengths of their prospective devices. Phone manufacturers have combined PDA capabilities with their mobile phone/pagers to produce a number of “smart” phones. Handheld device manufacturers have incorporated cellular phone accessories to their devices to accomplish the same thing. At the present time, these offerings are mostly add-on components to the PDA. However, this will likely change with new models having built-in wireless connectivity. The same is true for two-way pager manufacturers who have taken a similar approach by offering more computer functionality on their devices.
Regardless of the approach taken, combining mobile phones with computing devices still leaves users with a dilemma. They now have ultra-portability, but are still constrained by the small viewspace and input controls of the portable device. To fully support wireless Internet capabilities, these devices must address these perceived shortcomings.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for methods and apparatuses that permit use of alternate display devices to display content not suited for the limited displays on handheld devices.